Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05, Text 21
When children are tickled, they start laughing. Does their laughter indicate that they are happy? Not really. If happiness could be had just by tickling, then all of us could get a perpetual tickling machine for ourselves and become happy for the rest of our lives.
We dismiss the idea of a perpetual tickling machine as absurd because we know that the laughter produced by tickling is merely an automatic bodily reaction to a physical stimulus; it is superficial and peripheral to real happiness.
Gita wisdom urges us to recognize that all bodily pleasures are similarly superficial. When the fragrance of a delicacy enters our nose, the tongue starts salivating. Isn’t this just a bodily response to a physical stimulus? And doesn’t the same apply to the overhyped pleasure of sex?When the sight of a sexually appealing form enters our eyes, our body starts secreting certain chemicals that trigger a titillating sensation. Does such a sensation deserve to be the stuff of our fantasies? Is an adult’s getting turned on due to a sexual stimulation any different from a child’s laughter due to tickling?
